Memories Remain
by Yokomi
Summary: "You have to let go… it's not healthy to keep holding on. I'm not saying you should forget… but try and make time for the living as well… I know it's hard, but try. Try for us…" But that's just it... He really can't. *AU*


**Author's Notes:** Hi everyone! This is just something that suddenly hit me! I really liked the idea so here it is! I hope you like it! Enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I OWN NOTHING!

 **Memories Remain**

The teacher stood at the Memorial Stone, like he does every single morning. He's been there for only a few minutes at best, a bit before his wife usually wakes up; he doesn't want to hear her tell him what she always told him.

 _"You have to let go… it's not healthy to keep holding on. I'm not saying you should forget… but try and make time for the living as well… I know it's hard, but try. Try for us…"_

Except she didn't understand. She wasn't the one who had lost _all_ of her students, one after the other, while sitting helplessly, watching them die, unknowing of their plight until it was too late, _too late_ , to save them.

He wasn't supposed to be late… He usually wasn't. He would get to the frontline in the nick of time and turn the tides, making Konoha the victor. He could get on time for his wedding and was even on time when their baby, _their_ _son_ , was born.

However, when it mattered most, when his most precious people's lives were hanging between life and death… He has never been on time. Not when Obito was dying… not when Rin was dying… and certainly not when Kakashi was dying. Too late, he was too late for all three.

Minato ignored the sun as it bestowed beautiful, sparkling light upon the sleeping land below. He didn't even notice the breeze pick up and play with his hair. His mind was busy elsewhere… somewhere in the past, back when his students were still alive, were still having screaming matches, were still able to throw punches that missed and whine when they didn't hit their targets. Remembering, repenting, wondering where he had went wrong. When was it that everything started spiraling down to hell?

If Minato were honest with himself, he could easily answer that question. It began with Obito; his loudest, most emotional student. Also known as the first one to go.

 _"Sensei!" his Uchiha student whined, deliberately dragging out the call. The teacher glanced at the black-haired Genin and was barely able to stifle a laugh. Obito, with his skin turning an alarming shade of red and eyes narrowed into slits, didn't quite appreciate his teacher's sense of humor._

 _"Why does he have to be the mission leader?!" he shouted while pointing at his male teammate angrily._

 _"We've been over this, Obito," Minato answered, rubbing his temples. He could already feel the headache forming at the back of his head, "Konoha is currently short-handed, this mission is very important," he stressed, "And Kakashi's a Jonin now,"_

 _"I don't care that he's a Jonin now! He's a jerk, and I'm not taking orders from him!"_

 _"Sensei, you shouldn't just imply things. His brain is too small and dense to understand. I'll try and dumb it down for you," the Hatake reported in a matter-of-fact tone which made Obito's face redden even further… if that was even possible, "What he means, moron, is that I am a Jonin and you're a Chunin. I outrank you, so you have to listen to me while Minato-sensei provides a distraction for us to complete the mission. Do you understand?"_

 _"Sensei!" Obito screeched at the top of his lungs. Minato had had enough._

 _"Enough you guys," he snapped, "This mission is of utmost importance. Teamwork is the key to its success. You have to complete this mission, no matter what. Failure is not an option," He gave each of them a pointed look._

Failure is not an option… Minato had to fight a scoff. Well, the mission didn't exactly fail, but it was a complete _failure_. He understood most of the story from Kakashi and Rin. Apparently, Rin was captured sometime after he had set off. Obito had wanted to rescue her, but Kakashi, being too affected by his father's suicide, had refused. Obito went to save Rin and his own; he would have lost his life then and there if Kakashi hadn't changed his mind. It was then that Kakashi lost his eye and Obito activated his Sharingan for the first time _(Obito's life-long goal… It was ironic that he only acquired it a few minutes before he died)_. Somehow, they were able to save Rin together. Then, the cave started to crumble, Obito was caught under the wreckage and knew that it was over for him, so he gave his newly-awoken Sharingan to his teammate in compensation for his lost left eye.

That was the story… The story that started this whole ordeal. After Obito's untimely death, none of the members of Team Minato were quite the same. Rin wasn't smiling all the time like she used to. Kakashi lost his punctuality and gained a set of unbelievable lies. Minato… well, he isn't too sure what happened to him at that time. However, one thing was for certain; he had blamed the two kids he was responsible for at first. It was stupid and childish, but Minato couldn't bring himself to believe that the too joyful Uchiha's death was his fault. If only he'd been there with them, if only he hadn't accepted the mission, if only, if only, _if_ _only_ …

He had hoped that Obito's funeral would be the only one he would have to watch… However, Rin couldn't help herself… she decided she wanted to follow in Obito's footsteps.

 _Minato entered the village after weeks of fighting to defend it. It felt too good to finally enter the safe village, be protected by the huge walls… It made Minato's once tense shoulders relax to be finally home. Once he had rested enough, he went to check on his students. Oddly enough, both Kakashi and Rin were out on missions. He didn't know Kakashi's whereabouts, but Rin's team was a full week late, Minato learned. Maybe the mission took a turn to the worst. In that case, Rin might be at the hospital. True to his nickname, the Yellow Flash's body flickered for a second before appearing at the hospital's entrance. He crossed his fingers as he entered the white-domed building, he hoped that everything was okay._

 _Half an hour later, Minato, having checked the hospital and found nothing, was on his way to the Hokage's office. He hoped with all his heart that nothing had went wrong, and the team was just late. He didn't want to deal with another death on his team; he didn't want to lose another one of his valuable students. Minding his manners, he knocked on the wooden door and entered once he was allowed to._

 _"Ah, Minato, how good to see you. How have you been?" the wizened Hokage smiled, a fake smile, Minato's eyes recognized._

 _"I'm afraid I'm not here to exchange pleasantries, Hokage-sama," he said, his heart pounding too loudly for his ears, "Rin's been sent on a mission about two weeks ago, a simple C-rank,"_

 _"Yes, I'm aware," the Third said, that fake smile still plastered on his face._

 _"I understand that her team is a full week late," Sandaime rubbed his chin and blew on his pipe, the smile no longer visible on his cheery face._

 _"Yes, that is correct. Her team faced some complications on the way here," the Sarutobi reported, "Minato, Rin's team returned an hour ago… without Rin herself," Hiruzen didn't give Minato any time to say anything before he continued, "She was captured on the way back. I've already sent Kakashi-kun to bring her back,"_

Yes, his predecessor had sent Kakashi to save Rin. What he didn't count for, however, was that Kakashi would kill Rin with his bare hands. Again, Kakashi explained to him what had transpired that day. He said there were too many enemy ninjas from Kiri, all Jonin level or above. He said he tried to force them back with Chidori in order to protect Rin and keep his promise to Obito, a promise Minato hadn't known about before. He said that as he was driving Chidori into one of the Kiri Jonin's abdomen, Rin got in the way. He said that Chidori tore through Rin's fragile body and blood rushed through the exhilarating wound, tainting the ground crimson red. He said that he didn't know what happened next because he blacked out (Kakashi could have died that day, too). The next thing he knew, a team, Minato included, was trying to rouse him up and he didn't know _what_ had happened to all the Kiri Jonin and ANBU, but Rin was still dead.

Kakashi had to tell him what happened because, once again, the Yellow Flash was _too_ _late_ to see what occurred for himself. Minato was too late to save his second student, which left him with only one alive and breathing.

Another funeral was held for the death of the second member of Team Minato. The teacher watched and blamed Kakashi, at least for a little while. It was after that that the self-loathing came.

The story began with Obito, continued with Rin and ended with Kakashi.

Perhaps, in more ways than one, he was responsible for Kakashi's death the most. He had been Hokage, then. His son, Naruto, was not yet born.

 _Minato pulled another paper from the huge pile on his desk. He didn't know why he had wanted to become Hokage so badly. It involved too much paperwork, enough to make even the most patient man scream and pull his hair out. A knock on his door saved him from reading through yet another file._

 _"Come in!" he called, a bit too quickly, a tad too eagerly. Any distraction from paperwork was always welcome. A silver-haired teen entered the office and Minato instinctively smiled. Seeing his student, his still breathing student, brought him a certain sense of glee; like he hadn't completely failed as a teacher._

 _"Nice to see you Kakashi! How was your last mission? It wasn't hard was it?" he questioned, then his voice carried a worried tone, "Are you okay?" When the boy only glared daggers at him and made no effort to reply, Minato stood up and checked him over, "You're not hurt, are you?"_

 _"Hurt?" the Hatake repeated incredulously, "I was sent on a C-rank, that should have been a D-rank by the way, to help a farmer get his chickens back into the coop. Just how am I supposed to get hurt?" his pupil answered bluntly, he could already feel a storm coming, "You're babying me, Sensei. I'm a Jonin, I'm supposed to be going out on B-ranks and A-ranks, even S-ranks… I'm not supposed to be cleaning dog poop off the streets!" his student exclaimed, throwing the new mission he had obtained at the Yondaime before crossing his arms._

 _"What's wrong with that? I'm not babying you, Kakashi. You're doing the whole village a huge favor!" Minato argued, snatching the 'Clean Dog Poop' mission scroll from the air easily, "It's within the village walls. It's perfectly safe. And if something does go wrong, I could get there instantly! It's perfect,"_

 _"Oh, you're not babying me?" the silver-haired kid muttered under his breath._

 _"Topic is not up for debate. Here you go!" he said cheerily, forcing the scroll back into his student's hands, "Enjoy!" Just as he was preparing to open the door to let Kakashi out to finish his mission, the door opened to grant entrance to a Chunin._

 _"Excuse me, Hokage-sama!" she said as she bowed hastily, "It's an urgent A-rank, sir!" Minato took the scroll from the kunoichi and skimmed through its contents. Hmm… so Fujibayashi-san needed a Jonin to guard him as he traveled from the Village Hidden in Grass to the Village Hidden in Hot Water to sell some of his goods. It was mostly ranked an A-rank because Fujibayashi-san was willing to pay enough for one. Other than that, it could be considered easy, especially due to the new treaty between the Leaf and Rock._

 _"Well, he wants a Jonin… Are any available?" He ignored Kakashi as he rolled his visible eye._

 _"Negative, sir. The only one available is…" the Chunin trailed off, glancing at Kakashi as she went._

 _"Kakashi already has a mission," he said, "Off you go," he shooed both of them out, but Kakashi ducked under his arm and crossed his arms._

 _"Sensei!" he started, "You can't keep me in the village forever and make me do silly D-ranks!"_

 _"Technically, I can," Minato sighed while Kakashi groaned, "You don't need to go on this A-rank, Kakashi. Besides, you have a duty to fulfill. Those streets won't clean themselves!"_

 _"Sensei, I'm a Jonin, I can handle it!"_

And Minato had given in eventually, allowed Kakashi to go on the mission that was his last. No one was there to watch his last student die, no one could tell him what happened that day. No one needed to. He already knew what had happened. The A-rank mission was a set-up from the start. Minato figured it out when a week had passed and he was reading the scroll once again. He had only skimmed through it before, he didn't notice the obvious error in its contents. At that point in time, the Village Hidden in Hot Water and the Village Hidden in Grass were on bad terms; they weren't doing business with one another. He had noticed the fault too late, sent a team after his student too late. The only testament to his last student's death was a rotting corpse, with an empty left socket, they had brought back with them.

Why was he so stupid as not to notice the mistake before it was too late? Why did he even agree to send Kakashi out in the first place?

He shook his head. What was done was done. He couldn't change the past, but he couldn't let go either.

"Hey, Obito, Rin, Kakashi," he greeted, "What's new?" he didn't expect an answer, and he didn't get one, "Well, I just wanted to tell you about Naruto," he said with a smile, "He's growing up to be quite a prankster, kind of like you Obito. You'd love him Rin, he's so adorable! And I'm not saying that just because I'm his father. I don't think you'd find his antics as hilarious, Kakashi, you never did like pranks, especially when you were on the receiving end of one," he smiled ruefully and glanced at the sun as it rose over the horizon; it was time to leave, "It was nice talking to you three today, but duty calls as always! I can't slack off now that I'm the Hokage! I'll come back tomorrow, same time, that's a promise! So you guys just wait for me, alright?"

 **The End**

 **Author's Notes:** This is it! I hope you enjoyed this tragic story XD I would love to know what you thought! Thank you for reading!


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